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• Action: The process of doing something, especially when dealing with a problem or difficulty.  Cambridge Dictionary
• Action: The fact or process of doing something, typically to achieve an aim.  Oxford Dictionary
• Action: Something done or performed; act; deed.  Dictionary.com
• Action plans,  Right-action,  Decision making,  Goal setting,  Momentum,  Motivation

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Action has magic, grace and power in it

• There is no power greater than right action in the present moment. Yaga Vasistha
• Action has magic, grace and power in it. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Do the thing and you will have the power. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Knowledge is not power; Implementation is power. Garrison Wynn
• There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. Martha Graham
• Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind. Emily P. Bissell
• Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity. Edwin Hubbell Chapin
• Action is the real measure of intelligence. Napoleon Hill
• Action always beats inaction. T. Harv Eker
• Life is a purposeful action. Asa Don Brown
• Power

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Your actions today create your future

• What you are is what you have been. What you’ll be is what you do now. Buddha
• The future depends on what you do today. Mahatma Gandhi
• You are where you are right now because of the actions you’ve taken, or maybe, the inaction you’ve taken. Steve Maraboli
• The future

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Your actions determine who you are

• What you are is what you have been. What you’ll be is what you do now. Buddha
• You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do. G. Jung
• Action is my domain. Mahatma Gandhi
• Every action alters the soul of the doer. Oswald Spengler
• My actions are my only true belongings. Thich Nhat Hanh
• You are what you practice most. Richard Carlson
• The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action. John Dewey
• The decisions that you make and the actions that you take upon the earth are the means by which you evolve. Gary Zukav
• Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. Thomas Jefferson
• It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do! Jane Austen
• Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are. George Eliot
• Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. George Eliot
• Action and becoming are one. Meister Eckhart
• Character

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Your actions determine where you stand

• You are where you are right now because of the actions you’ve taken, or maybe, the inaction you’ve taken. Steve Maraboli

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Through action, you can get what you want most …

• Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it. Jack Canfield
• The universe doesn’t give you what you ask for with your thoughts – it gives you what you demand with your actions. Steve Maraboli
• Your automatic guidance system cannot guide you when you’re standing still. Maxwell Maltz
• The world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going. Napoleon Hill
• Strong reasons make strong actions. William Shakespeare
• It’s motive alone which gives character to the actions of men. Jean de la Bruyere

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… thereby achieving whatever success means to you

• Action is the foundational key to all success. Tony Robbins
• Action is the universal language of success. Steve Maraboli
• Action makes more fortune than caution. Luc De Clapiers
• Every action is either strong or weak, and when every action is strong we are successful. Rita Mae Brown
• Inaction creates nothing. Action creates success. Stephen Richards
• Personal action is your pathway to success, even if it is a little bit at a time! Catherine Pulsifer
• Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit. Conrad Hilton
• The path to success is to take massive, determined action. Tony Robbins
• Success will never be a big step in the future, success is a small step taken just now. Jonatan Mårtensson
• Opportunities multiply as they are seized. Lao Tzu
• Success

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Through action, you can reach your dreams

• Take action on those wonderful dreams you’ve had in your mind for so long. Remember, success is something you experience when you act accordingly. Success is not something you HAVE, it’s something you DO. Steve Maraboli
• Be a practical dreamer backed by action. Bruce Lee
• The greatest doer must also be a great dreamer. Theodore Roosevelt
• It may be those who do most… dream most. Stephen Leacock
• Our life is composed greatly from dreams, from the unconscious, and they must be brought into connection with action. They must be woven together. Anaïs Nin
• The secret to living the life of your dreams is to start living the life of your dreams today, in every little way you possibly can. Mike Dooley
• The difference between the dreamer and the doer is consistent, purposeful action. Jack D. Hodge
• The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do. Sarah Ban Breathnach
• I think there is something more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers. There aren’t enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision. Clement Stone
• Baby step by baby step, you have what you need right now to start moving in the direction of your happiest dreams. Marta Davidovich Ockuly
• Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the action stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living. Anaïs Nin
• A dream is nothing without action. Whether one fails or succeeds is irrelevant; all that matters is that there was motion in his life. That alone affects the world. Mike Norton
• If I can dream, I can act. And if I can act, I can become. Poh Yu Khing
• If you have a dream, keep it. But write it down and take appropriate actions to see it manifest. F. Hodge
• Dreams

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Through action, you can achieve your goals

• Never leave the site of setting a goal without first taking some form of positive action toward its attainment. Tony Robbins
• Define your goals in terms of the activities necessary to achieve them, and concentrate on those activities. Brian Tracy
• A dream becomes a goal when action is taken toward its achievement. Bo Bennett
• Action is the foundational key to all success. Tony Robbins
• If you are trying to reach a specific goal, ask yourself every day: What is one stall step I could take toward reaching my goal? Whether you ask your question aloud or in the privacy of your own thoughts, please take a kind tone with yourself, the same you’d use for a beloved friend. Robert Maurer
• You cannot continue on the same path and arrive at a different destination. Make the choice to have your actions reflect your goals. Steve Maraboli
• My dreams are worthless, my plans are dust, my goals are impossible. All are of no value unless they are followed by action.  Og Mandino
• When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps. Confucious
• To will is to select a goal, determine a course of action that will bring one to that goal, and then hold to that action till the goal is reached. The key is action. Michael Hanson
• You will never reach your goal until you start to take action, any action. Byron Pulsifer
• Goal setting

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Through actions, you can transform your visions into reality

• Everything depends upon execution; having just a vision is no solution. Stephen Sondheim
• Imagination without initiative would more properly be called idle daydreaming. James Van Fleet
• The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs. Vance Havner
• In order to make a visualization a reality in the world of form, you must be willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen. Wayne Dyer
• No one lives on the top of the mountain. It’s fine to go there occasionally —for inspiration, for new perspectives. But you have to come down. Life is lived in the valleys. That’s where the farms and gardens and orchards are, and where the ploughing and the work is done. That’s where you apply the visions you may have glimpsed from the peaks. Arthur Gordon
• Vision animates, inspires, transforms purpose into action. Warren Bennis
• Vision without a task is only a dream. A task without a vision is but drudgery. But vision with a task is a dream fulfilled. Willie Stone
• Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. Japanese proverb
• Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world! Joel Barker
• Vision without execution is just hallucination. Henry Ford
• Imagination means nothing without doing. Charles Chaplin
• Vision

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Through action, you can create motivation

• Do it, and then you will feel motivated to do it. Zig Ziglar
• The whole idea of motivation is a trap. Forget motivation. Just do it. Exercise, lose weight, test your blood sugar, or whatever. Do it without motivation. And then, guess what? After you start doing the thing, that’s when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it. John C. Maxwell
• The thrust of continuous action is the firewood which fuels motivation. Steve Backley
• Stick to the task until the task sticks to you.
• The common conception is that motivation leads to action, but the reverse is true — action precedes motivation. You have to “prime the pump” and get the juice flowing, which motivates you to work on your goals. Getting momentum going is the most difficult part of the job, and often taking the first step is enough to prompt you to make the best of your day. Robert J. McKain
• Most of us believe an emotion, such as happiness, comes first. Then we do whatever we do, in reaction to that particular emotion. Not so. The emotion arises simultaneously with the doing of the act. So if you want to be enthusiastic, you can get there by acting as if you were already enthusiastic. Steve Chandler
• We must act out passion before we can feel it. Jean-Paul Sartre
• The ordinary wait for the energy to do a task. The exceptional do the task because that’s how they get the energy.  Robin Sharma
• Do it now, feel better later. Robert Leahy, Ph.D.
• Motivation

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Through action, you can create inspiration

• We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action. Frank Tibolt
• Don’t wait for inspiration. Take action! Action generates inspiration. Frank Tibolt
• Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning. Igor Stravinsky
• Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others. Plato
• Inspiration

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Through action, you can boost your mood

• It is easier to act yourself into a better way of feeling than to feel yourself into a better way of action. H. Mowrer
• Behaviour wags the tail of feelings… We do, then we feel. Feelings follow behavior. David Reynolds
• If you are feeling down, force yourself to engage in activities that you have found pleasurable in the past. Even if they don’t seem appealing right now, they will help you start to overcome apathy, indifference, and lack of energy that are major symptoms of depression. Robert W. Firestone
• You’re more likely to act yourself into feeling than feel yourself into action. So act! Whatever it is you know you should do, do it. Jerome Brunet
• Sorrow is the mere rust of the soul. Activity will cleanse and brighten it. Samuel Johnson
• Action is the antidote to despair. Joan Baez
• Mood

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Through action, you can create happiness

• Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. Benjamin Disraeli
• Happiness consists in activity. It is a running stream, not a stagnant pool. John Mason Good
• Happiness is a state of activity. Aristotle
• Happiness is in the doing not in getting what you want. Ethan Hawke
• Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions. The Dalai Lama
• Happiness is something you notice you are feeling later… after you’ve been in action for a while. It’s not something to worry about ahead of time. Steve Chandler
• He who enjoys doing and enjoys what he has done is happy. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. George Bernard Shaw
• The secret of happiness is something to do. John Burroughs
• The soul’s joy lies in doing. Percy Bysshe Shelley
• There is no happiness without action. Benjamin Disraeli
• Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing. William Shakespeare
• We do not sing because we are happy, we are happy because we sing. William James
• We must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary to us than thought. Hazlitt
• Out of the strain of the doing, Into the peace of the done. Julia Woodruff
• It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action that man finds his supreme joy. Antoine de Saint- Exupery
• Enjoyment is not a goal, it is a feeling that acompanies important ongoing activity. Paul Goodman
• True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new. Antoine de Saint- Exupery
• Happiness

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Through action, you can learn new things

• We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way. John Holt
• There is only one way to learn. It’s through action. Paulo Coelho
• I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. Chinese Proverb
• Learning

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Through action, you can master your emotions

• You have much more control over your behaviour than you do over your thoughts or emotions so paradoxically the best way to master your emotions is to let them be, stay relaxed, and focus on constructive action. So, accept your emotions as natural to you in the moment, without trying to fix them. Know your purpose or goal—not someone else’s. And, do whatever you need to reach that goal, whether or not your emotions or moods help or hinder you. Dan Millman
• The most constructive way to influence your emotions is to do something. Dan Millman
• Emotions

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Through action, you can conquer fear, anxiety and doubt

• Action conquers fear. Peter Nivio Zarlenga
• Action cures fear. Indecision, postponement, on the other hand, fertilize fear. David Schwartz
• Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action. Walter Anderson
• Anxiety is energy that cannot be used now. When you focus that trapped energy on action in the present moment, you release it and experience excitement and effectiveness. Neil Fiore
• When thinking won’t cure fear, action will. W. Clement Stone
• When we commit to action, to actually doing something rather than feeling trapped by events, the stress becomes manageable. Greg Anderson
• Hesitation only enlarges, magnifies the fear. Take action promptly. Be decisive. David J. Schwartz
• Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. Dale Carnegie
• A good idea if not acted upon produces terrible psychological pain. But a good idea acted upon brings enormous mental satisfaction. Got a good idea? Then do something about it. Use action to cure fear and gain confidence. Here’s something to remember: Actions feed and strengthen confidence; inaction in all forms feeds fear. To fight fear, act. To increase fear—wait, put off, postpone. David Schwartz
• Concern should drive us into action, not into depression. Karen Horney
• To fight fear, act. To increase fear–wait, put off postpone. David Joseph Schwartz
• We need to practice acting in spite of fear, in spite of doubt, in spite of worry, in spite of uncertainty, in spite of inconvenience, in spite of discomfort, and even to practice acting when we’re not in the mood to act. If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard. But if you’re willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy.  Harv Eker
• When thought becomes excessively painful, action is the finest remedy. Salman Rushdie
• Doubt can only be removed by action.  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Fear,  Anxiety,  Doubt

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Through action, you can banish worry

• Spit on your hands and get busy. Your blood will start circulating; your mind will start ticking—and pretty soon this whole positive upsurge of life in your body will drive worry from your mind. Get busy. Keep busy. It’s the cheapest kind of medicine there is on this earth—and one of the best. Dale Carnegie
• As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• The only real antidote for anger or worry is purposeful action in the direction of your goals. Brian Tracy
• Worry

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Through action, you can create confidence and strength

• Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others. Plato
• The undertaking of a new action brings new strength. Evenius
• Newsflash: confidence comes from taking action, not from sitting on the sidelines forever. Mike Mahler
• Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all. Norman Vincent Peale
• Do the thing and you will have the power. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Self-confidence,  Strength

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Through action, you can create clarity

• The problem is getting stuck in analysis paralysis. And you’re not going to get out of it with more thinking. The simple, yet scary solution is to take massive action.  You have to do something, because when you do, you’ll make progress, and inch by inch, things get clearer.  Henri Junttila
• Clarity

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Through action, you can build forward momentum

• If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward. Martin Luther King Jr.
• Do not be afraid of moving slowly but of standing still. Chinese Proverb
• Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. Albert Einstein
• There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still. Franklin D. Roosevelt
• If all you can do is crawl, start crawling. Rumi
• Momentum

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Inaction comes at a heavy price

• He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence. William Blake
• There is no moment like the present. The man who will not execute his resolutions when they are fresh upon him can have no hope from them afterwards; they will be dissipated, lost, and perish in the hurry and scurry of the world, or sunk in the slough of indolence. Maria Edgeworth
• Even if you are on the right track you’ll get run over if you just sit there. Will Rogers
• The only true failure lies in failure to start. Harold Blake Walker
• Probably 80 percent of the population lives on Someday Isle most of the time. They think and dream and fantasize about all the things they are going to do someday. Brian Tracy
• There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction. John F. Kennedy
• There are many wonderful things that will never be done if you do not do them. Charles D. Gill
• What motivates you to change, to take action? Those who wait to take action until they find themselves in a desperate situation face more difficulties than they need to. Catherine Pulsifer
• My dreams are worthless, my plans are dust, my goals are impossible. All are of no value unless they are followed by action.  Og Mandino
• The way to be nothing is to do nothing. Nathaniel Howe
• If you wait, all that happens is that you get older. Larry McMurty
• A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction. Rita Mae Brown
• Heaven never helps the man who will not act. Sophocles
• I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act. Buddha
• The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel. S. Lewis
• Inaction — doing nothing about a situation — strengthens fear and destroys confidence. Peter Stafford

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Nothing saps energy like inaction

• Inaction saps the vigour of the mind. Leonardo da Vinci
• Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. Make a start, just a little one. William James
• Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation … even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind. Leonardo da Vinci
• Energy management

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It is not enough to know, you must do…

• A little knowledge that acts is worth more than much knowledge that is idle. Kahlil Gibran
• All know the way; few actually walk it. Bodhidharma
• It’s not knowing what to do, it’s doing what you know. Tony Robbins
• Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. Bruce Lee
• Our trouble is not ignorance, but inaction. Dale Carnegie
• The great end of life is not knowledge but action. Thomas Henry Huxley
• The knowledge that we consider knowledge proves itself in action. What we now mean by knowledge is infomation in action, information focused on results. Peter Drucker
• To know and not to do is not yet to know. Lao Tzu
• What changes your life is not learning more. What changes your life is making decisions and using your personal power and taking action. Tony Robbins
• What we think, or what we know, or what we believe, is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do. John Ruskin
• You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action. Tony Robbins
• We are what we do, not what we know. Richard Rose
• A man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting. Carlos Castaneda
• Knowledge might be power, but only when you take action. Richard Keeves
• Knowledge needs to be a verb. Edwards Denning
• Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied. Dale Carnegie
• Knowledge without action is useless and irrelevant. Abdul Kalam
• A knowledge of the path cannot be substituted for putting one foot in front of the other.
• Wisdom equals knowledge plus courage. You have to not only know what to do and when to do it, but you have to also be brave enough to follow through. Jarod Kintz
• Knowledge

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…for an ounce of action is worth a ton of theory

• Theories are always very thin and insubstantial, experience only is tangible. Hosea Ballou
• It is not enough to know how to do it; one must do it, consistently, in the same way as athletes or musicians must keep practicing what they know in theory. Per Csikszentmihalyi
• An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory. Friedrich Engels
• You see, knowing the words is not the same thing as living the meaning. Suppose I memorize the printed instructions on a first- aid kit. Does that mean I can give first aid? No. The full meaning comes when I admit I know nothing and then try, practice, succeed. Vernon Howard
• Action will remove the doubts that theory cannot solve. Tehyi Hsieh

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Do not be wise in words – be wise in deeds

• What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Talk does not cook rice. Chinese proverb
• An ounce of practice is worth tons of preaching. Mahatma Gandhi
• Do not be wise in words – be wise in deeds. Jewish Proverb
• It is not the same to talk of bulls as to be in bullring. Spanish proverb
• A warrior seeks to act rather than talk. Carlos Castaneda
• All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action. James Russell Lowell
• The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. Walt Disney
• Sayings remain meaningless until they are embodied in habits. Kahlil Gibran
• Actions speak louder than words, but not nearly as often. Mark Twain
• To talk much and arrive nowhere is the same as climbing a tree to catch a fish. Chinese proverb
• Speech is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it often substitutes for both. John Andrew Holmes
• Be content to act, and leave the talking to others. Baltasar Gracian
• Behaviour is a much better barometer of what you are than words. Wayne Dyer
• A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed. Henrik Ibsen
• You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do. Carl Jung
• A thousand words leave not the same deep impression as does a single deed. Henrik Ibsen
• We have too many high-sounding words and too few actions that correspond with them. Abigail Adams
• I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions. Dorothy Day
• Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words.  Alfred Adler
• What you do has far greater impact than what you say. Stephen Covey
• Words may show a man’s wit, but actions show his meaning. Benjamin Franklin
• One’s feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results. Florence Nightingale
• Wisdom

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Your ideas are only useful if you act on them …

• Ideas are cheap and abundant; what is of value is the effective placement of those ideas into situations that develop into action. Peter F. Drucker
• Ideas without action are worthless. Helen Keller
• Any powerful idea is absolutely fascinating and absolutely useless until we choose to use it. Richard Bach
• You can have many great ideas in your head, but what makes the difference is the action. Without action upon an idea, there will be no manifestation, no results, and no reward. Miguel Ruiz
• Ideas won’t work unless you do.
• The value of an idea lies in the using of it. Thomas A. Edison
• The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer. Nolan Bushnell
• What is creativity? I define creativity as the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing. Innovation is the production or implementation of a creative idea. If you have ideas, but don’t act on them, you are imaginative but not creative. Linda Naiman
• Good ideas are common – what’s uncommon are people who’ll work hard enough to bring them about. Ashleigh Brilliant
• To make ideas effective, we must be able to fire them off. We must put them into action. Virginia Woolf
• Getting an idea should be like sitting down on a pin. It should make you jump up and do something. L. Simpson
• I have far more respect for the person with a single idea who gets there than for the person with a thousand ideas who does nothing. Thomas Alva Edison
• An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied. Arnold Glasow
• An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea. Edward de Bono
• Genius lies not in thinking of ideas, but in the ability to execute the ideas. Jane McElyea
• However, many holy words you read, how many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act upon them? Buddha
• Some people have ideas. A few carry them into the world of action and make them happen.  These are the innovators.  Andrew Mercer
• Ideas won’t keep; something must be done about them. Alfred North Whitehead
• Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference. Nolan Bushnell
• An idea is a curious thing. It will not work unless you do. Jaeger’s Facts
• Having the world’s best idea will do you no good unless you act on it. Curtis Grant
• Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them are priceless. Mary Kay Ash
• I have far more respect for the person with a single idea who gets there than for the person with a thousand ideas who does nothing. Thomas Alva Edison
• Take action on your ideas. Procrastination is the mortal enemy of spontaneous brilliance. Dan Zadra
• Ideas

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… and your thinking is only useful if it inspires action

• While some of us act without thinking, too many of us think without acting. Dan Millman
• Thought is useful when it motivates action and a hindrance when it substitutes for action. Bill Raeder
• If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done. Bruce Lee
• The life of wisdom must be a life of contemplation combined with action. M. Scott Peck
• A thought which does not result in an action is nothing much, and an action which does not proceed from a thought is nothing at all. Bernanos, Georges
• Good thoughts are no better than good dreams if you don’t follow through. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind. Emily P Bissell
• Unless a capacity for thinking be accompanied by a capacity for action, a superior mind exists in torture. Charles Horton Cooley
• Thinking

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Intentions usually lead nowhere unless married with action

• The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention. John Burroughs
• It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs. Vance Havner
• You cannot change anything in your life with intention alone, which can become a watered- down, occasional hope that you’ll get to tomorrow. Intention without action is useless. Caroline Myss
• In my experience, the greatest successes don’t come from grandiose scenarios of good intentions engendered by temporarily pumped-up motivation. Rather, the most lasting and significant positive effects result from small things, done consistently, in strategic places. David Allen
• The universe doesn’t give you what you want in your mind; it gives you what you demand with your actions. Steve Maraboli
• The best way to keep good intentions from dying is to execute them.
• Each decision we make, each action we take, is born out of an intention. Sharon Salzberg
• Intention

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You can accomplish great acts by taking small steps…

• Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. Vincent van Gogh
• Confront the difficult while it is still easy; accomplish the great task by a series of small acts. Lao Tzu
• Great acts are made up of small deeds. Lao Tzu

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… for small steps taken every day lead to giant strides over time

• To make the quickest progress, you don’t have to take huge leaps. You just have to take baby steps—and keep on taking them. Marci Shimoff
• It is the Baby Steps you take, the everyday things you do, that eventually lead to the manifestation of your outcome. David Emerald
• It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward. Proverb
• Once you get into a rhythm, it’s hard to stop. You achieve big visions by doing the little things every day and looking at them in a positive focus. Shawn Phillips
• A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules. Anthony Trollope
• What you do every day matters more than what you do every once in a while. Marc and Angel Chernoff
• Small steps become gant strides. Tony Robbins
• Little changes and little choices add up to be revolutionary changes in your life. Sarah Ban Breathnach
• Small steps are good—they add up to big ones. Small steps are especially helpful to overachievers, who need to learn that life is less about getting somewhere, and more about being somewhere. Alan Cohen
• The ability to progress and achieve extraordinary results even in the midst of chaos is to take just one step at a time in the right direction. Tony Robbins
• Small daily improvements always lead to exceptional results over time. Robin Sharma
• Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out. Robert Collier
• The power of small steps

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Small consistent actions are far better than occasional large ones

• A big occasional effort does not have the same beneficial effect as less spectacular effort that is more constant. Matthieu Ricard
• It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward. Chinese Proverb
• Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned. Peter Marshall
• There is no one giant step that does it. It’s a lot of little steps. Peter A. Cohen
• It’s easier to take a small action now instead of a big action ’some day.’ Marc and Angel Chernoff

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The most important thing about action is to take that first step…

• A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. Lao Tzu
• The only joy in the world is to begin. Cesare Pavese
• The secret of getting ahead is getting started. Mark Twain
• You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going! Mike Litman
• The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. Walt Disney
• If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed. David Viscott
• Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. Lao Tzu
• Begin somewhere; you cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do. Liz Smith
• You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. Joe Sabah
• What is not started today is never finished tomorrow. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Don’t wait for something big to occur. Start where you are, with what you have, and that will always lead you into something greater. Mary Manin Morrissey
• The time for action is now. It’s never too late to do something. Carl Sandburg
• Making a start,  Think big and start small

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… but follow through and completion are also very important

• One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is worth half-a- hundred half- finished tasks. Malcolm S. Forbes
• Doing things is not the same as getting things done. Jared Silver
• Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. William James
• A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided. Tony Robbins
• Never confuse motion with action. Benjamin Franklin
• To avoid falling into treacherous traps, it is best to consider that you have covered half your journey only when you have walked ninety percent of the road. Paulo Coelho
• When you get right down to the root of the meaning of the word ‘succeed,’ you find that it simply means to follow through. F Nichol
• Genius begins great works, labour alone finishes them. Joseph Joubert
• Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• The great majority of men are bundles of beginnings. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Focus your attention on only one action at a time

• Doing one thing at a time means to be total in what you do, to give it your complete attention. This is surrendered action—empowered action. Eckhart Tolle
• Get started today by looking three feet in front of you, not three miles. A long gaze at the mountain crest will overwhelm you, so stop looking at it. The key to achieving enormous tasks is to break them down into their smallest parts. MJ DeMarco
• We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once. Calvin Coolidge
• Learn to be in the moment, focusing on one task at a time, and immersing yourself completely in that task. Leo Babauta
• Doing one thing at a time. (The definition of Zen)
• Focused action beats brilliance. Mark Sanborn
• I dream of men who take the next step instead of worrying about the next thousand steps. Theodore Roosevelt
• To go far you must begin near, and the nearest step is the most important one. Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Concentrate all your thoughts on the task at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. Alexander Graham Bell
• Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention. Jim Rohn
• Focus,  Attention,  Concentration

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Immerse yourself in your actions…

• It is not a question of which part you follow, it is a question of whether you go totally into it or not. To be total in your action brings joy. Even an ordinary, trivial action done with total intensity brings a glow to your being, a fulfilment, a fullness, a deep contentment. And anything done half-heartedly, however good the thing may be, is going to bring misery. Osho
• Whenever your mind is totally absorbed in whatever activities you are performing, your mind will remain calm and content. Chin- Ning Chu
• In doing something, do it with love or never do it at all. Mahatma Gandhi
• Immerse yourself completely in what you do

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… including the small, ordinary actions for that is how you achieve excellence

• Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul even to your smallest acts. This is the secret of success. Sri Swami Sivananda
• Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves. Dale Carnegie
• The way we do small things determines the way that we do everything. If we execute our minor tasks well, we will also excel at our large efforts. Mastery then becomes our way of being. Robin Sharma
• If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way. Booker T. Washington
• Do ordinary things extraordinarily well. Gregg Harris
• When you do the common things in an uncommon way, you’ll command the attention of the world. George Washington Carver
• Since most of us spend our lives doing ordinary tasks, the most important thing is to carry them out extraordinarily well. Henry David Thoreau
• It is not the straining for great things that is most effective; it is doing the little things, the common duties, a little better and better. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
• Life is in the little things,  Excellence

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Take action proactively to create opportunities and make things happen

• Long ago I learned nothing gets done by just wishing it. You have to do it. Louis L’Amour
• Make the iron hot by striking it. Oliver Cromwell
• Don’t wait for your ship to come in, and feel angry and cheated when it doesn’t. Get going with something small. Irene Kassorla
• I like things to happen; and if they don’t happen, I like to make them happen. Winston Churchill
• It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things. Elinor Smith
• The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can’t find them, make them. George Bernard Shaw
• Power is the faculty or capacity to act, the strength and potency to accomplish something. It is the vital energy to make choices and decisions. Stephen Covey
• You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream; you’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself. Diana Ross
• If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door. Milton Berle
• Proactiveness,  Decision making

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Always take decisive action after making a committed decision

• A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided. Tony Robbins
• Once you have made a careful decision based on facts, go into action. Don’t stop to reconsider. Don’t begin to hesitate, worry, and retrace your steps. Don’t lose yourself in self- doubting which begets other doubts. Don’t keep looking back over your shoulder. Dale Carnegie
• It is not always what we know or analysed before we make a decision that makes it a great decision. It is what we do after we make the decision to implement and execute it that makes it a good decision. William Pollard
• Decisions are the father of actions, which in turn leads directly to results. Tony Robbins
• Decision is the spark that ignites action. Until a decision is made, nothing happens. Decision is the courageous facing of issues, knowing that if they are not faced, problems will remain forever unanswered.  Wilfred A. Peterson
• Life rewards action. Make careful decisions and then pull the trigger. Learn that the world couldn’t care less about thoughts without actions.  Dr Phil McGraw
• Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action comes, stop thinking and go in. Napoleon Bonaparte
• Commitment

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Take action as if it were impossible to fail

• Act as if it were impossible to fail. Act as though achievement of the goal was absolutely inevitable. Brian Tracy
• Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Act as though it were impossible to fail. Dorothea Brande
• Act as if failure is impossible, and your success will be assured. Wipe out every thought of not achieving your objectives, whether they are material or spiritual. Be brave, set no limits on the workings of your imagination. Never be a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future. You will never be the same. Robin Sharma
• All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail. That is the talisman, the formula, the command of right about face which turns us from failure to success. Dorthea Brande
• Failure

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Take action in spite of fear

• Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you are scared. Eddie Rickenbacker
• Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the making of action in spite of fear. M. Scott Peckbr
• Courage is summoning the inner strength to take action in spite of fear. Steve Pavlina
• Feal the fear and do it anyway. Susan Jeffers
• You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. Eleanor Roosevelt
• Panic at the thought of doing a thing is a challenge to do it. Henry S. Haskins
• Do one thing every day that scares you. Eleanor Roosevelt
• Courage,  Fear

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Let your actions be inspired by who you are and your values

• Who we are being, including who we consider ourselves to be, always informs or determines what actions we see to take. Brad Swift
• What we do flows from who we are. Paul Vitale
• A value in action is a virtue. Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
• You are in integrity when the life you are living on the outside matches who you are on the inside. Alan Cohen
• The highest level of creativity consists in being, not doing. When the being is intense enough, when the words are spoken enough, when the thoughts are thought enough, the doing will automatically follow. Marianne Williamson
• Integrity comes when a person’s words and behaviors match up. True integrity—the true test of character—is to live what you say is important to you—even when you don’t feel like it—to live your values above and beyond your moods. James Arthur Ray
• Integrity is the integration of ideals, convictions, standards, beliefs—and behavior. When our behavior is congruent with our professed values, when ideals and practice match up, we have integrity. Nathaniel Branden
• The highest morality is personal integrity—living in harmony with your own value system. Alan Cohen
• Keep your thoughts and feelings in harmony with your actions. The surest way to realize your purpose is to eliminate any conflict that exists between what you’re thinking and feeling and how you are living your days. Wayne Dyer
• Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Mahatma Gandhi
• There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do. Freya Stark
• Values

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Let your action be inspired by your principles and ideals

• Principles connect your values to your actions; they are beacons that guide your actions, and help you successfully deal with the laws of reality. It is to your principles that you turn when you face hard choices. Ray Dalio
• An ideal is the most practical thing in the world, for it is a force behind action that must be reckoned with by the frankest materialist. Edward H. Griggs
• Man must cast out of himself everything which separates him from God. He must will to live the divine life, and he must rise above all moral temptations; he must forsake every course of action that is not in accord with his highest ideals. Wallace D. Wattles
• Words without actions are the assassins of idealism. Herbert Hoover
• Principles,  Ideals

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Let your actions be inspired by your purpose

• When the deepest part of you becomes engaged in what you are doing, when your activities and actions become gratifying and purposeful, when what you do serves both yourself and others, when you do not tire within but seek the sweet satisfaction of your life and your work, you are doing what you were meant to be doing. Gary Zukav
• There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. Martha Graham
• Finding and creating your life’s work, even if it is entirely different from what you have done most of your life, will bring you more happiness and health than any other action you can take. If your primary responsibility in life is being true to yourself, that can only be accomplished by carrying out what you are called to do – your unique and special vocation. Your life’s work involves doing what you love and loving what you do. Dennis Kimbro
• Purpose

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Let your actions be inspired by your passions

• When you do things from your soul you feel a river moving in you, a joy. When action comes from another section, the feeling disappears. Rumi
• Enthusiasm – the sustaining power of all great action. Samuel Smiles
• Passion is the love of turning being into action. It fuels the engine of creation. It changes concepts to experience. Never deny passion, for that is to deny Who You Are, and Who You Truly Want to Be. Neale Donald Walsch
• Trust in what you love, continue to do it, and it will take you where you need to go. Natalie Goldberg
• The important thing is not to think much, but to love much; and so, do that which best stirs you to love. Saint Teresa of Avila
• Passion

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Let your actions be inspired by your vision of the person you want to be

• Act as if everything you desire is already here… treat yourself as if you already are what you’d like to become. Wayne Dyer
• Begin to act in your physical world as if that person whom you would love to be were already here. Wayne Dyer
• Imagine who you would like to be—the person it would make you proudest to be. Act like that person. Eric Maisel
• Now, having seen the differences between where you are and where you want to be, begin to change—consciously change—your thoughts, words, and actions to match your grandest vision. Neale Donald Walsch
• The secret is in action – here and now. It is your behavior that blinds you to yourself. Disregard whatever you think yourself to be and act as if you were absolutely perfect – whatever your idea of perfection may be. All you need is courage.  Nisargadatta Maharaj
• Ask yourself this daily question: ‘How would the person I’d like to be do the things I’m about to do?’ Jim Cathcart
• Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you’d like to act. Bob Dylan
• Envision who you want to be

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Focus your actions around what really matters to you in life rather than just getting caught in an activity trap

• When your daily activities are in concert with your highest priorities, you have a credible claim to inner peace. Hyrum Smith
• There’s no point in masterfully doing the wrong things. Robin Sharma
• It’s incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the business of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it’s leaning against the wrong wall. Stephen Covey
• There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. Peter Drucker
• It’s more important to do the right thing than to do things right. Peter Drucker
• Furious activity is no substitute for understanding. H Williams
• Am I being productive or just active? Timothy Ferriss
• Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing. Lao Tzu
• Slow down and remember this: Most things make no difference. Being busy is a form of laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Timothy Ferriss
• Never confuse movement with action. Ernest Hemingway
• Action expresses priorities. Mahatma Gandhi
• Don’t mistake activity with achievement. John Wooden
• The question should be, is it worth trying to do, not can it be done. Allard Lowenstein
• It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? Henry David Thoreau
• Busyness,  Eliminate what is not important

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Let your actions be inspired by your sense of what is right

• Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not. Oprah Winfrey
• Integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching. Jim Stovall
• Character is doing the right thing when nobody’s looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that’s right is to get by, and the only thing that’s wrong is to get caught.  C. Watts
• Character is doing the right thing even when it costs more than you want to pay. Michael Josephson
• In the end you should always do the right thing even if it’s hard. Nicholas Sparks
• Speak or act with a pure mind and happiness will follow you as your shadow, unbreakable. Buddha
• Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. George Eliot
• The time is always right to do what is right. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• One man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole. Mahatma Gandhi
• That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong. William J. H. Boetcker
• The only correct actions are those that demand no explanation and no apology. Red Auerbach
• Every time I’ve done something that doesn’t feel right, it’s ended up not being right. Mario Cuomo
• Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching. Thomas Jefferson
• Live never to be ashamed if anything you do or say is published around the world — even if what is published is not true. Richard Bach
• Anything that helps you maintain unruffled equanimity is right action. Sri Sathya Sai Baba
• Action indeed is the sole medium of expressing for ethics. Jane Addams
• Morals,  Right-action,  Integrity

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Let your actions be inspired by kindness and your concern for the well-being of others

• In Zen Buddhism, an action is considered good when it brings happiness and well-being to oneself and others, evil when it brings suffering and harm to oneself and others. Thich Thien-An
• The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention. Kahlil Gibran
• What would our world be like if we ceased to worry about “right” and “wrong,” or “good” and “evil,” and simply acted so as to maximize well-being, our own and that of others? Would we lose anything important? Sam Harris
• No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves. Lawrence G. Lovasik
• If love is truly a verb, if help is a verb, if forgiveness is a verb, if kindness is a verb, then you can do something about it. Betty Eadie
• Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing. Mother Teresa
• Kindness,  Love

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Let your actions match your words

• Integrity means congruence. Words and behaviour match. Nathaniel Branden
• It is not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity. Francis Bacon
• When deeds and words are in accord, the whole world is transformed. Chuang Tzu
• What you do speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you are saying. Henry Adams
• You will be better advised to watch what we do instead of what we say. John D. Mitchell
• What we think or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do. John Ruskin
• Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct. Thomas Carlyle
• Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul. Edward Abbey
• Be impeccable with your word,  Words

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Let your actions be guided by clear thinking and reflection

• Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action. Peter Drucker
• What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action. Meister Eckhart
• The ancestor of every action is a thought. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action. Meister Eckhart
• Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in public and private life, have been the consequences of action without thought. Bernard Baruch
• We must dare to think about ‘unthinkable things’ because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless. James W. Fulbright
• We have to understand that the world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is more important than the eye… The hand is the cutting edge of the mind. Jacob Bronowski
• Thought is the parent of the deed. Thomas Carlyle
• Each human being was given two possibilities: action and contemplation. Both lead to the same place. Paulo Coelho
• To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• First comes thought; then organization of that thought into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination. Napoleon Hill
• Thinking,   Reflection

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Let your actions be guided by stillness and inner wisdom

• When you don’t know what to do, get still. Get very still until you do know what to do. Oprah Winfrey
• Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions. Eckhart Tolle
• When we let go of the thinking mind, we become open to insight—to what in spirituality we might call revelation, or the spontaneous arising of a deep wisdom or a deep knowing. Adyashanti
• Your soul – that inner quiet space – is yours to consult. It will always guide you in the right direction. Wayne Dyer
• We’re constantly bombarded with input. And when we allow our actions to flow from the ramblings of the monkey mind, we become really blocked. Brad Swift
• Quietening the chattering mind promotes directed action. Kare Anderson
• When you have the constant focus of going within and then acting, your life will unfold in magical ways. Elizabeth Joy
• Meditation is the action of silence. Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Do you have the patience to wait till your mind settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?    Tao Te Ching
• Stillness,  Inner Wisdom

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While taking action, periodically check yourself for any unnecessary physical or mental tension…

• Check yourself four or five times a day, and say to yourself, ‘Am I making my work harder than it actually is? Am I using muscles that have nothing to do with the work I’m doing?’ Dale Carnegie
• Test yourself again at the end of the day, by asking yourself, ‘Just how tired am I? If I am tired, it is not because of mental work I have done but because of the way I have done it. Dale Carnegie
• You translate everything, whether physical, mental or spiritual, into muscular tension. M. Alexander
• Effort

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…thereby reducing all unnecessary effort and striving

• There’s a concept in Taoism, “wei wu wei”, which is often translated as “action without action” or “effortless doing”. I prefer to think of it more in the sense of “action that does not involve struggle or excessive effort”. Leo Babauta
• All effort is ignorance. Francis Lucille
• Act without doing; work without effort. Lao Tzu
• Practice non-doing, and everything will fall into place. Lao Tzu
• Life is water, and we tend to push too hard, thrash about, force things, struggle. Instead, learn to float, learn to allow things to become effortless. Leo Babauta
• Do or do not. There is no try. Yoda
• Don’t push the river, it flows anyway. Barry Stevens
• Effortlessness,  Let go of striving and end-goaling

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Your ability to perform just about any action increases as you relax…

• By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try, the world is beyond winning. Lao Tzu
• The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be. Bruce Lee
• Practice not-doing. And everything will fall into place. Lao Tzu
• Conscious effort inhibits and ‘jams’ the automatic creative mechanism. Maxwell Maltz
• Trying too hard can actually have the opposite effect to what you want. Amanda Harvey
• It is not the degree of ‘willing’ or ‘trying’, but the way in which the energy is directed, that is going to make the ‘willing’ or ‘trying’ effective. M. Alexander
• Being relaxed, at peace with yourself, confident, emotionally neutral, loose, and free- floating – these are the keys to successful performance in almost everything. Wayne Dyer
• Everything you do can be done better from a place of relaxation. Stephen C. Paul
• The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. James Allen
• The power of calm: In matters of the mind, the more mental effort you apply to any given situation, the less will be the result. Richard Carlson
• The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil. Marcus Tullius Cicero
• Your ability to be productive is directly proportional to your ability to relax. David Allen
• Your power is proportional to your ability to relax. David Allen
• Calmness,  Relaxation

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… while tensing up and trying too hard has the opposite effect

• Conscious effort inhibits and ‘jams’ the automatic creative mechanism. Maxwell Maltz
• Time is like that: cussed when we try to speed up, a dear friend when we slow down. Richard Koch
• The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.
• Excessive effort can also result from impatience or exaltation, two states that lead nowhere. If you begin climbing a high mountain at a run, your lungs will soon force you to stop. In the same way, if you draw a bow too far, it will break, or if you try to cook on too high a flame, you will end up burning your food. Matthieu Ricard
• Stress is poison. Agave Powers
• If your teeth are clenched and your fists are clenched, your lifespan is probably clenched. Terri Guillemets

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Don’t allow yourself to become overly attached to the intended results of your action…

• We can watch our motivations for action and soften into the need of any kind of outcome, yet totally committing ourselves without reservation to what we’re given to do. Chris Bourne
• Desire and intent are different. Desire has attachment. Intent does not. It’s imperative that we harness the power of our pure intention— independent of the outcomes of our actions. Deepak Chopra
• Perhaps the hardest lesson to learn is not to be attached to the results of your actions. Joan Borysenko
• If you achieve your goal, you’ll be fine. If you don’t achieve your goal, you’ll also be fine.  Srikumar S. Rao, Ph.D.
• But better still is surrender of attachment to results of one’s actions, because there follows immediate peace. Bhagavad Gita
• Abandon all attachment to the results of action and attain supreme peace. Krishna from The Bhagavad Gita
• Let go of attachment to results

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… but rather focus on the action itself and let the fruits come of their own accord

• So do not be concerned with the fruit of your action—just give attention to the action itself. The fruit will come of its own accord. Eckhart Tolle
• Another simple and powerful way to dissolve problems is not to dwell upon the outcome of your actions. Instead, learn to value each action (no matter how small or large), to do it with complete attention. Your joy and satisfaction comes from doing each action with a whole heart and mind. Results and consequences then take care of themselves. When you are not absorbed by concern for outcomes, how much anxiety can you ever have? Brenda Shoshanna
• Become detached from the outcome of your actions and paradoxically your level of performance will climb. Wayne Dyer
• Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity. Lao Tzu

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Release any sense of obligation or resistance you may have to an action

• Letting Go of Doing is not about not doing things. It is about letting go of the doing mode of consciousness. When we are stuck in the “doing mode” our attention is caught in the “having to do them, drive to get them done.  When I am caught in this mode my mind feels tight. My body adopts a background tension. My attention becomes tunnel vision; I see only what I am doing, and filter out other aspects of the present moment. I miss the beauty that surrounds me. I become a human doing rather than a human being.  Peter Russell
• Non-resistance

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Bring awareness, attention and mindfulness to each action you take …

• Each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes sacred. Thich Nhat Hanh
• In your everyday life, you can practice this by taking any routine activity that normally is only a means to an end and giving it your fullest attention, so that it becomes an end in itself. Eckhart Tolle
• Whatever activity you choose, the point is to focus on the activity itself. Pay attention to the way your body feels. Pay attention to the work in front of you. Pay attention to what you feel (but do not become attached to any feelings). Rachel Rofe
• Try it for an hour. Every single thing you do should be done mindfully, and given equal importance — whether that’s putting something away, walking from one spot to another, picking up the phone, or talking to someone. Leo Babauta
• Turn your actions into concentrated practices. Belsebuub
• Doing one thing at a time means to be total in what you do, to give it your complete attention. This is surrendered action—empowered action. Eckhart Tolle
• Pause before taking on a new task, and take a moment to savor the present moment. Peter Russell
• Do you have the patience to wait till your mind settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?    Lao Tzu
• Awareness,  Attention,  Mindfulness

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… focusing just on the step you’re taking in the moment

• Realise that your entire life journey ultimately consists of the step you are taking at this moment. There is always only this one step, and so you give it your fullest attention. This doesn’t mean you don’t know where you are going; it just means this step is primary, the destination secondary. And what you encounter at your destination once you get there depends on the quality of this one step. Another way of putting it: What the future holds for you depends on your state of consciousness now. Eckhart Tolle
• Focus

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In this way, you infuse your doing with the timeless quality of being…

• Anyone who separates being and doing is still enjoying separation. David Deida
• Beingness leads to doingness. Neale Donald Walsch
• The way to do…is to be. Lao Tzu
• The highest level of creativity consists in being, not doing. When the being is intense enough, when the words are spoken enough, when the thoughts are thought enough, the doing will automatically follow. Marianne Williamson
• It’s not so much about doing as about being. Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Not being tense but ready. Not thinking but not dreaming.  Not being set but flexible. Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement. It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come.  Bruce Lee
• When doing becomes infused with the timeless quality of being that is success. Eckhart Tolle
• But there is something you can ‘do’. You can continually cease doing, efforting, resisting, denying or trying at all. You can continually move into pure being. Which means to follow the path of your soul – and allow authentic doing to arise from this place. It is to follow the heart felt pull and to trust that when you ‘do’ this, all answers, solutions and goals will simply fall into place. Chris Bourne
• Being,  Presence

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… bringing a sense of stillness and peace into your actions

• When the action is accomplished, the alert, spacious stillness remains. Eckhart Tolle
• In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you. Deepak Chopra
• Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there is in silence. Max Ehrmann
• Wherever you go in the midst of movement and activity, carry your stillness within you. Then the chaotic movement around you will never overshadow your access to the reservoir of creativity, the field of pure potentiality. Deepak Chopra
• Stillness and action are relative, not absolute, principles. It is important to find a balance of yin and yang, not just in qigong, but in everyday life. In movement, seek stillness and rest. In rest, be mindful and attentive. Ken Cohen
• Stillness within finds stillness without as the framework through which all activity occurs. Breathe deep and full. Relax always. Grace unfolds from within to dance about in joyous recognition. Rob Campbell
• One’s action ought to come out of an achieved stillness: not to be mere rushing on. D. H. Lawrence
• Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths, or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes. Etty Hillesum
• Formal meditation, however, is no substitute for bringing space consciousness into everyday life. Eckhart Tolle
• You owe it to everyone you love to find pockets of tranquility in your busy world. Georges Bernanos
• Real action is in silent moments. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• To meet everything and everyone through stillness instead of mental noise is the greatest gift you can offer to the universe. Eckhart Tolle
• You may be engaged in several directions and work with enormous zest, yet remain inwardly free and quiet, with a mirror like mind, which reflects all, without being affected. Nisargadatta Maharaj
• You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose. Indira Gandhi
• Stillness,  Peace

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The spirit in which you perform an action is as important as the action itself

• Because we are spiritual beings, it is the spirit of what we do that determines how much fulfilment we derive. You can be going through all the motions and doing all the appropriate and expected actions, but if you are empty or absent inside, your deeds mean little. Only soul satisfaction can fulfil you; everything else will leave you hungry. Rumi
• The ultimate importance is not what you do, it’s how you do it—the state of consciousness brought to the process. Eckhart Tolle
• Your soul doesn’t care what it does for a living – and when your life is over, neither will you. Your souls cares only about what you’re being while you’re doing whatever you’re doing. It is a state of beingness the soul is after, not a state of doingness. Neale Donald Walsch
• At the end of your life, you will know that nothing you have done will matter – only who you have been while you have done it. Have you been happy? Have you been kind? Have you been gracious? Have you been compassionate and considerate of others? And most of all, have you been loving? You will see that it is who you have been, not what you have done, that matters to the soul. And you will see that it is your soul, after all, that is Who You Are. Neale Donald Walsch
• “How” is always more important that “what.” See if you can give much more attention to the doing than to the result that you want to achieve through it. Eckhart Tolle
• In truth, it matters less what we do… than how we do it and why. Donna Farhi
• What is the energy that flows into this action I am taking?  Anthony Lambert

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Perform your actions with love

• Never do anything because you have to. The only reason to do something is because you want to and because you know it is the right thing for you to do. Robin Sharma
• It is not how much we do, but how much love we put into the doing. Mother Theresa
• We cannot do great things on this earth. We can only do small things with great love. Mother Teresa
• There is nothing the wise man does reluctantly. Seneca
• If anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart. Buddha
• A menial task which must be mine, that shall I glorify and make an art of it. Walter Russell
• You must love anything you must do. Do it not only cheerfully, but also lovingly and the very best way you know how. That love of the work which you must do anyhow will vitalize your body and keep you from fatigue. Walter Russell
• In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love? Igor Stravinsky
• There is nothing so easy but that it becomes difficult when you do it reluctantly. Publius Terentius
• Instead of focusing on how much you can accomplish, focus on how much you can absolutely love what you’re doing. Leo Babauta
• In doing something, do it with love or never do it at all. Mahatma Gandhi
• It is love alone that leads to right action. What brings order in the world is to love and let love do what it will. Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Do everything in love. It’s the only way to find true peace and fulfilment. Tim Hansel
• Love

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Always let your actions come from an inner acceptance of what arises in the moment…

• You accept the “isness” of this moment. Then you take action and do all that you can to get out of the mud. Such action I call positive action. It is far more effective than negative action, which arises out of anger, despair, or frustration. Eckhart Tolle
• In the state of surrender, you see very clearly what needs to be done, and you take action, doing one thing at a time and focusing on one thing at a time. Eckhart Tolle
• The action you take after surrender is always more effective than when you fight against life. Eckhart Tolle
• Acceptance,  Non-resistance

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…for this brings a higher level of intelligence and positive energy to the way you act

• Surrender is perfectly compatible with taking action, initiating change, or achieving goals. But in the surrendered state a totally different energy, a different quality, flows into your doing.  Eckhart Tolle
• Do what you have to do. In the meantime, accept what is. Since mind and resistance are synonymous, acceptance immediately frees you from mind dominance and thus reconnects you with Being. As a result, the usual ego motivations for “doing” – fear, greed, control, defending or feeding the false sense of self – will cease to operate. An intelligence much greater than the mind is now in charge, and so a different quality of consciousness will flow into your doing. Eckhart Tolle
• Through non-resistance, the quality of your consciousness and, therefore, the quality of whatever you are doing or creating is enhanced immeasurably. The results will then look after themselves and reflect that quality. We could call this surrendered action. Eckhart Tolle
• Intelligence

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Through awakened action, allow consciousness to flow through you for the benefit of all around you

• Awakened doing is the alignment of your outer purpose—what you do—with your inner purpose—awakening and staying awake. Through awakened doing, you become one with the outgoing purpose of the universe. Consciousness flows through you into this world. It flows into your thoughts and inspires them. It flows into what you do and guides and empowers it. Eckhart Tolle
• Consciousness

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• The time for action is past! Now is the time for senseless bickering!   Ashleigh Brilliant
• Many of us spend half our time wishing for things we could have if we didn’t spend half our time wishing. Alexander Woollcott
• The best way to keep good intentions from dying is to execute them.
• Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often. Mark Twain
• Actions speak louder than words…but words sometimes get all the attention. Susan Gale
• There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is having lots to do and not doing it. John W. Raper
• For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism. Harrison’s Postulate
• I’m a woman of very few words, but lots of action. Mae West
• If we see you smoking we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate action. Sign
• Never mistake motion for action. Ernest Hemingway
• The basis of action is lack of imagination. It is the last resource of those who know not how to dream. Oscar Wilde
• The probability of someone watching you is proportional to the stupidity of your action. Hartley’s First Law
• Vision without action is daydream. Action without vision is nightmare. Japanese Proverb
• You’re old when your actions creak louder than your words. Milton Berle

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